Album: Gossip – A Joyful Noise

‘A Joyful Noise’ is Gossip’s fifth studio album and, in my opinion, a perfect microcosm of the band’s history to date; promising so much, delivering disappointingly very little.I have no gripes with the album to begin with. Opener ‘Melody Emergency’ is powerfully minimalistic, forced on by a dominating and consistent pounding riff, whilst ‘Get a Job’ and lead single ‘Perfect World’ have such a mature and grown up sound, it’s like the natural progression of the band, a polished pop act with an edge.However, after that hugely promising start, it undergoes a hideous transformation into something that more likely resembles a poor, cheesy 80’s movie soundtrack than a serious attempt at a relevant album; you can practically hear Eddie Murphy sliding over car bonnets whilst a man sporting a bad mullet unsuccessfully shoots at him.With artists like Madonna, Kate Bush and even ABBA audibly present within the influence of the album, coupled with Ditto’s almost incomparable vocal clout this could have been an incredibly impressive offering, but instead it has been let down by unimaginative and downright lazy song-writing, with some tracks being little more than recognisable 90’s dance loops laid over numerous Ditto trademarked “Whoa-oo-whoa-oo-Whoas”. To have my hopes raised by such a strong, confident opening, only to then have them utterly dashed by the totally unoriginal, musically tepid fodder that followed was massively disappointing. Bar the first three songs, it is totally bereft of anything that even resembles the kind of music Gossip are capable of producing. This was truly one of the most painful listening experiences I’ve had in a long time, something I rarely say in polite conversation; I would wish this album on my worst enemy.

About Luke Deakin

Music is awesome. Well, some isn’t, but most is. I personally approve of Foo Fighters, Weezer, Sum 41, The Cure, Metallica, The Sex Pistols, Muse, NOFX and White Denim amongst many others